3. Civil rights case against the City of Saskatoon (Saskatoon Transit Services) for promoting holidays from only one religion on city buses

4. Human rights complaint against the City of Saskatoon (Executive Committee) for retaliating against me by not reappointing me to the Cultural Diversity and Race Relations Committee and not appointing me to another civic committee or board

5. Human rights complaint against the City of Saskatoon (City Solicitor’s Office) for retaliating against me by trying to deprive me of my right to directly communicate with members of City Council and by telling employees of other City of Saskatoon departments to not talk to me

6. Human rights complaint against the City of Saskatoon (Cultural Diversity and Race Relations Office) and City of Saskatoon (Living in Harmony Ad Hoc Subcommittee of Cultural Diversity and Race Relations Committee) for retaliating against me by not considering my submissions to the Living in Harmony Contest

This site contains my media releases, some case documents, emails to City Council, etc.

I don't waste my time arguing with opponents.

The backlash makes me much more determined to fight against bigotry and shows the need for these civil rights cases, so I'll be filing more civil rights cases. You ain't seen nothing yet.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

The Supreme Court of Canada will be hearing a case on whether Saguenay City Council meetings can be opened with prayer recitations. The case was filed by Alain Simoneau. The Quebec Human Rights Tribunal ruled in favor of Simoneau. The Quebec Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Saguenay Mayor Jean Tremblay. Now the case is being appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada by Alain Simoneau and the Quebec Secular Movement.

The outcome of Simoneau's case will affect whether prayer recitations are allowed at government meetings across Canada including in Saskatchewan and Saskatoon. I was hoping my prayer recitation case would have that kind of impact, but Simoneau's case was filed first in 2006 and will set the legal precedent for Canada.

The Canadian Secular Alliance has been granted intervener status in Simoneau's case. They could use your support:

I am attaching a scan of a letter and envelope from the
Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission (SHRC). They have dismissed the City
of Saskatoon’s frivolous and vexatious application for summary dismissal of my
prayer recitation case against the City of Saskatoon (Mayor's Office) and
Councillor Randy Donauer. They have also dismissed a request by me for
the chief commissioner, Judge David Arnot, to recuse himself from dealing
further with this case because he has publicly praised Mayor Don Atchison and
knows Atchison from high school.

The City of Saskatoon could appeal the dismissal of their
application for summary dismissal at the Court of Queen’s Bench. If they
lose there, they could appeal at the Court of Appeal.

If they don’t appeal, the case will move forward.
This is the SHRC resolution roadmap:

As you can see in the attached letter, the arguments of
the City Solicitor's Office in its application for summary dismissal were
frivolous and vexatious and the SHRC recognized them as such.

The City Solicitor's Office says that I threaten human
rights complaints to advance my political agenda. There's nothing wrong
with someone threatening to file a human rights complaint if an organization
doesn't stop a discriminatory action against him. That's all I've done.

The City Solicitor’s Office says the media was
misinformed about not participating in mediation. SHRC sent me an email
message saying the City of Saskatoon wouldn’t participate in mediation. I
forwarded this to the media. Then the City Solicitor’s Office claimed it
would participate in mediation, but wasn’t available on the date set by
SHRC. Since then, I’ve repeatedly called for the City of Saskatoon and
Donauer to attempt mediation and they could agree at any time, but haven’t done
so.

The City Solicitor's Office claimed that the time
deadline wasn't met. No deadline was missed. I filed my intake
questionnaire with SHRC just 13 days after the volunteer appreciation banquet
in which Donauer tried to lead the audience in a prayer. I waited 13 days
because I first gave Atchison and Donauer the chance to agree to stop having
prayer recitations at future events. I had a year to file this intake
questionnaire according to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code.

The City of Saskatoon, Atchison, and Donauer are wasting
their time and taxpayer money by not agreeing to cease prayer recitations and
now by making frivolous and vexatious arguments to try to get this case
dismissed.

Atchison, Donauer, and my opponents are really petty for
not agreeing to get rid of prayer recitations at City of Saskatoon events and
for forcing me to go to SHRC. If this case goes to trial, I seek a
judgment that has the effect of banning prayer recitations at civic events
throughout the province of Saskatchewan and that has significant persuasive
value in other provinces too.

I'm fighting for a country where the government neither
promotes nor suppresses any religion, where the government neither favors nor
disfavors any religion, and where the government equitably treats people of all
religions, nonreligious spiritual people, agnostics, and atheists.

I asked for these human rights complaints to be combined
into one case. SHRC has to decide whether there is reasonable grounds to
believe the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code may have been violated. If
they find reasonable grounds, then they will move forward with this case too.

MEDIA ADVISORY: Solo Files Three New Human Rights Complaints against City of Saskatoon for Retaliation against Him

SASKATOON, SK, Dec. 18, 2013 /CNW/ - Ashu M. G. Solo has filed three new human rights complaints against the City of Saskatoon on December 17, 2013 with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission. These complaints are for retaliation against him by the City of Saskatoon for his prayer recitation civil rights case and Christmas message civil rights case. Retaliation for filing human rights complaints is considered a form of discrimination and strictly prohibited under section 45 of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code.

The first human rights complaint is against the City of Saskatoon (Executive Committee) for retaliating against Solo by not reappointing him to the Cultural Diversity and Race Relations Committee and not appointing him to another civic committee or board. The second human rights complaint is against the City of Saskatoon (City Solicitor’s Office) for retaliating against Solo by trying to deprive him of his right to directly communicate with members of City Council and by telling employees of other City of Saskatoon departments to not talk to him. The third human rights complaint is against the City of Saskatoon (Cultural Diversity and Race Relations Office) and City of Saskatoon (Living in Harmony Ad Hoc Subcommittee of Cultural Diversity and Race Relations Committee) for retaliating against Solo by not considering his submissions to the Living in Harmony Contest.

“Employees of the City of Saskatoon are clearly abusing their authority to retaliate against me for my civil rights cases,” Solo said. “This is disgraceful. Their retaliation makes me more determined to pursue my cases.”

SASKATOON, SK, Nov. 26, 2013 - In a cowardly move, the City of Saskatoon's Executive Committee, which is composed of the mayor and all councillors, decided on November 25, 2013 to not implement a prayer policy to prevent religious prayers at civic events. Therefore, secularism activist Ashu M. G. Solo is being forced to continue with his prayer recitation case against the City of Saskatoon and Councillor Randy Donauer with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission (SHRC).

SHRC will consider the City of Saskatoon's frivolous and vexatious application for summary dismissal of Solo's case. Solo expects the application for summary dismissal to be rejected. Then Solo expects SHRC to make another attempt at mediation, but the City of Saskatoon and Donauer haven't participated in mediation so far. Finally, Solo expects that SHRC will take his case to Court of Queen's Bench to be decided upon by a judge.

"What's the point of getting elected if a politician doesn't have the guts to stand up for what's right?" Solo asked. "The Executive Committee caved to the public backlash. I tried from the beginning to resolve this case in a cooperative manner. Now they're forcing me to go all the way in the legal process. The status quo will not prevail."

Solo will seek a judgment from the Court of Queen's Bench that has the effect of banning prayer recitations at government organized events throughout the province of Saskatchewan and that has significant persuasive value in other provinces. This will also outlaw prayer recitations at the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly and at Yorkton City Council meetings.

In response to my prayer recitation case against the City of
Saskatoon and Councillor Randy Donauer, the City Solicitor’s Office has
suggested a pre-meal meditation and generic event meditation followed by a
moment of silence for city events. These will be considered by the
Executive Committee, which is composed of the mayor and all councillors, at
their meeting on Monday, November 25, 2013.

The last 25 pages of the attached Executive Committee
report, which can also be found at

After I filed this case with the Saskatchewan Human Rights
Commission, the City of Saskatoon has been forced to make an effort to be more
inclusive, so my advisors, supporters, and I have already helped the City of
Saskatoon become more respectful of diversity.

If the city drops the idea of a moment of silence and makes
a few minor word tweaks to the suggested pre-meal meditation and generic event
meditation, I’m willing to drop my civil rights case against the City of
Saskatoon and Randy Donauer. I’m not looking for money in this case.

The pre-meal meditation suggested by the City Solicitor’s
Office follows:

Let us together
bow our heads.

We take this
moment to pause, before the enjoyment of a meal well-prepared for our
celebration, to recognize and appreciate the gifts from nature provided, the
work of human hands contributed, and sacrifice represented for our benefit.

Each of us have
our own beliefs. Whether we are thankful for the bounty provided by one God or
many, from a great spirit energy that is common to us all, or simply from the
good people behind the door to the kitchen, we are all together in this moment,
full of the grace that comes from being thankful for a gift that is given.

May we all enjoy
the gift that is the good meal before us.

Amen.

They have made more of an
attempt to try to accommodate people of monotheistic religions, polytheistic
religions, aboriginal spiritual people, atheists, and agnostics. I would
be willing to accept this pre-meal meditation if they drop the instruction to
bow people’s heads and if they drop the word “amen.” Bowing heads is not
done in all religions and is certainly not done by atheists or agnostics.
“Amen” is a term used to end religious prayers in Christianity, Judaism, and
Islam. The City Solicitor’s Office acknowledges in their report to the
Executive Committee that the term “amen” is Christian in nature.

In addition to the pre-meal meditation, the City Solicitor’s
Office has proposed a generic event meditation. I don’t believe that the
City of Saskatoon currently has generic event prayers, so I don’t see the need
to add one now. The City Solicitor’s Office is creating more problems by
proposing a generic event meditation. The generic event meditation
suggested by the City Solicitor’s Office follows:

Thank you for
life and the world, for everyone with whom we share this together.

Thank you for
today. Let us choose today's goals wisely and live today perfectly.

Let us ensure
that we love and respect ourselves and others.

Guide us
through our lives to live gracefully.

Amen.

This generic event meditation is more focused on thanking a
higher power or God and asking for guidance from a higher power or God,
especially when they say “thank you for life and the world,” “thank you for
today,” and “guide us through our lives to live gracefully.” Also, they should
drop “amen.” I would be willing to accept this generic event meditation
if they replaced it with the following language:

Let us be
thankful for life and the world and for everyone with whom we share this
together.

Let us be
thankful for today. Let us choose today's goals wisely and live today
perfectly.

Let us ensure
that we love and respect ourselves and others.

Let us live our
lives gracefully.

The mayor and councillors should
accept my proposals, so they stop wasting taxpayer money and so their friend
Donauer can put his legal problems behind him and focus on his bid to be one of
Harper’s regressive lackeys. Maybe I’ll run against Donauer in the next
federal election. Who else will have the guts to call him out on his
religious discrimination and bigotry for initially insisting on having
Christian prayer recitations at civic events?

If you have any questions, I can be reached at amgsolo@mavericktechnologies.us. You can also talk to Justin Trottier, spokesperson for
the Canadian Secular Alliance and founder of the Centre for Inquiry Canada, at info@secularalliance.ca. Justin is extremely familiar with this case.

I’m willing to drop my civil rights case against the City of
Saskatoon (Mayor’s Office) and Councillor Randy Donauer for prayer recitations
at civic events if they eliminate prayer recitations or come up with a secular
thanks that has wording agreed upon by me in settling the case, that doesn’t
reference a God or higher power, and that isn’t spiritual.

While a moment of silence is better than a Christian prayer
recitation, I’m unwilling to accept an official moment of silence because this
is still an attempt by the municipal government to get people to pray and thus
still violates the freedom from religion inherent to freedom of religion.
If people want to pray before they eat, they can take their own moments of
silence or even say prayers aloud to themselves. Nobody cares.
Nobody is stopping them. There doesn’t need to be an official moment of
silence.

The Executive Committee has indicated
that it would like a more inclusive pre-meal prayer or thanksgiving. If
the city wants to have a pre-meal thanks that is inclusive to everybody and
socially conscious, I suggest the following:

Let us be
thankful for this food and the time together. Let us think of all of the
people in this city, country, and world who do not have enough to eat.
Let us think of those who have barriers or burdens they need lifted. Let
us think of those whose lives we can improve through our work. Let us
strive to use our knowledge, skills, and talents to help all of these people.

This pre-meal thanks, which I wrote, is
much more inclusive than a Christian prayer recitation. The only reason
they wouldn’t be okay with this is if they want to push religion or a belief in
God(s) on people.

I call upon the City of Saskatoon and
Donauer to attempt mediation with me at the Saskatchewan Human Rights
Commission to agree on a secular thanks that can then be approved by the city’s
Executive Committee. However, instead of attempting mediation with me,
the City of Saskatoon is wasting taxpayer money with a frivolous and vexatious
application for summary dismissal of my case. This shows they don’t care
about discrimination against religious minorities, spiritual people, agnostics,
and atheists.

I’m attaching a letter from the Saskatchewan Human Rights
Commission that I received yesterday evening for Ashu Solo v. City of Saskatoon
(Mayor’s Office) and Councillor Randy Donauer. Instead of dealing with
the substance of my prayer recitation case, the City of Saskatoon is making a
frivolous and vexatious application to get this case dismissed. This is a
disgraceful tactic to keep discriminating against people. They’re wasting
the time and money of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.

City of Saskatoon claims that the complaint was made in bad
faith or for improper motives or is frivolous or vexatious. Also, City of
Saskatoon claims that there has been a lack of procedural fairness. The
Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission and I have met all of the legally required
deadlines.

Procedural fairness demands that I be able to see the City
of Saskatoon’s application for summary dismissal, so that I can see what
arguments they are making and have a chance to respond to them. I’m going
to see if I can get a copy of the City of Saskatoon’s application for summary
dismissal from the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.

If the City of Saskatoon is successful in getting this case
dismissed on a technicality, I’ll just file a new case with the Saskatchewan
Human Rights Commission next time they have a prayer recitation at a civic
event that I attend.

Donauer claimed that
councillors voted against covering his legal expenses, but this isn’t
true. Mayor Don Atchison and Donauer claimed that Donauer would be
responsible for any legal expenses that he might incur. The truth is an
Indemnification Review Committee will decide if any legal expenses by Donauer
will be covered.

If you have any questions for me, I can be reached at amgsolo@mavericktechnologies.us. You can also talk to Justin Trottier, spokesperson for
the Canadian Secular Alliance and founder of the Centre for Inquiry
Canada. Justin is an advisor to me on this case and can be reached at info@secularalliance.ca.

I’ve asked for Judge David Arnot, chief commissioner of the
Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, to recuse himself from dealing with my
cases. It is a conflict of interest for Arnot to be involved in this case
and to be involved in deciding how to proceed with this case. Arnot and
Atchison gave speeches at an event to start the cultural diversity and race
relations month in 2012 in Saskatoon. In these speeches, I learned that
Arnot and Atchison are friends and went to high school together.
Furthermore, in Arnot’s speech, he praised Atchison’s record on human rights,
despite the fact that he must have known Atchison had been abusing his office
to endorse a Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast by allowing this event to be named after
his office and Atchison had lead the opposition to the contract termination of
Chief Dave Scott for doing nothing about aboriginals being dumped outside the
city by criminal cops in the Saskatoon Police Service. Arnot’s long
friendship with Atchison could affect his ability to be neutral and unbiased
with a complaint that was originally against Atchison, Donauer, and the City of
Saskatoon and is now against the City of Saskatoon (Mayor’s Office) and
Donauer. For these reasons, I’ve asked the Saskatchewan Human Rights
Commission to assign someone else to make the decisions on how to proceed with
this case.

However, instead of recusing himself from dealing with my
cases, Arnot went on radio twice to talk about them. Judges and human
rights commission employees shouldn’t be talking to the media about cases in
progress that they might be involved in. I wonder why someone like Arnot
who had the audacity to praise Atchison’s human rights record would even be in
charge of a human rights commission.

Ashu Solo v. City of Saskatoon
(Saskatoon Transit Services) for Christmas messages on buses isn’t over
yet. I’m going to take this case to the Court of Queen’s Bench when time
permits. The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission decides whether to
pursue cases based only on the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code. At the
Court of Queen’s Bench, I can make arguments based on the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms. The guarantees of religious equality and
multiculturalism in the Charter will give me a much stronger case.

David Kirton on News Talk Radio
found that Councillor Randy Donauer had been lying to him about whether or not
Donauer will be responsible for his legal costs for my human rights complaint
against Donauer and the City of Saskatoon (Mayor’s Office). You can hear
David Kirton talking about this at http://ckom.com/sites/default/files/CKOM-StoonAfternoon-RandyDonauer-Oct3.mp3The City of
Saskatoon’s indemnification policy was amended by the Executive Committee on
September 30, 2013. As a result, Donauer would know in advance of hiring
a lawyer whether or not his legal costs would be covered. After hearing
the segment above, it’s obvious that Mayor Don Atchison has been lying too on
News Talk 650 CKOM, CBC Radio, and Global News. Atchison has been
repeatedly saying that Donauer will be responsible for all of his own legal
costs. According to the new indemnification policy discussed at the link
above, we don’t know yet whether or not Donauer will be responsible for his
legal costs if there are any. You might want to report that Atchison has
not been truthful to the media or public too.

The following interviews with
Atchison took place after the indemnification policy was amended by the
Executive Committee, so Donauer would know in advance of hiring a lawyer
whether or not his legal costs would be covered. You can hear Atchison
lying that Donauer is responsible for all of his own legal costs during these
time stamps at these links:

The Saskatchewan Human Rights
Commission decides whether to pursue cases based only on the Saskatchewan Human
Rights Code. At the Court of Queen’s Bench, I can make arguments based on
the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The guarantees of religious
equality and multiculturalism in the Charter will give me a much stronger case
than I had with the human rights code. Therefore, the Court of Queen’s
Bench is a much better avenue than the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission for
me to argue this case. There was no harm in trying the Saskatchewan Human
Rights Commission first, particularly because its process is simpler and
involves no cost to the complainant and they provide legal representation.

It's my
position that freedom of conscience in section 2a of the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms includes freedom from religion, that section 15 of the
Charter guarantees religious equality, that the Charter forbids attempts to
coerce, limit, or otherwise influence the choice of religious observance, and
that section 27 of the Charter on multiculturalism forbids conferring special
privileges or benefits on any particular religion. It's my position that
a Christmas message on Saskatoon Transit buses violates these sections of the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I think the Saskatchewan Human
Rights Commission made its decision based on the public backlash, not the
Saskatchewan Human Rights Code. I think the Saskatchewan Human Rights
Commission chickened out of pursuing this complaint because it was highly
controversial and they were afraid of the public backlash against the existence
of the human rights commission. But as Sylvester Stallone said in Rocky
Balboa, “Ain’t nothing over till it’s over.”

At the Court of Queen’s Bench, I
will seek a judgment that has the effect of banning religious messages by the
state throughout the province of Saskatchewan and that has significant
persuasive value in other provinces.

My opponents shouldn’t be gloating
because I’m just getting started in fighting for secularism. You ain’t
seen nothing yet. I don’t care about media coverage like some people
think. I care about the advancement of freedom like every person should.

The Saskatoon City Solicitor’s
Office wrote a report about a new prayer policy in response to my prayer
recitation civil rights case against the City of Saskatoon (Mayor’s Office) and
Councillor Randy Donauer with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.
This report can be found at

The Executive Committee, which is
composed of the mayor and councillors, will be debating a policy on prayers at
their meeting at 2:00 PM on Monday, September 30, 2013 in Committee Room A at
City Hall.

The City Solicitor’s Office is saying the only way to
respect everybody is to have no prayer recitations, a secular thanks without a
reference to a God, or a moment of silence. The City Solicitor’s Office
is not calling for prayers from all religions or no prayers as has been
suggested by some.

However, the City Solicitor’s Office says the secular thanks
can include spirituality. This doesn’t even make sense. A secular
thanks can’t include spirituality. I don’t think the City Solicitor’s
Office even understands what “secular” means.

Prayer recitations from all religions is a ridiculous and
impractical idea because according to the World Christian Encyclopedia
by David Barrett, there are over 10,000 religions, 150 of which have a million
or more followers, not including branches of each religion: http://www.adherents.com/misc/WCE.htmlThe media has made a major mistake by not
reporting this fact. The vast majority of people don’t realize
this. Because you haven’t reported this, Atchison is getting away with
saying that they should have prayer recitations from all religions. Why
haven’t you challenged Atchison on this and asked him how he’s going to have
prayer recitations for the thousands of religions? They would be praying
all night to cover even a tiny fraction of the religions. Are they going
to have Voodoo religion prayer recitations and Scientology prayer
recitations? Where are they going to find people to recite all of these
prayers?

I’m willing to accept no prayer recitations. I prefer
this option.

I’m willing to accept a secular thanks that has wording
agreed upon by me in settling the case, that isn’t spiritual at all in nature,
and that doesn’t reference a god or higher power.

I’m unwilling to accept a moment of silence because this is
still an attempt by the government to get people to pray. If people want
to pray before they eat, they can take their own moments of silence and pray or
even audibly say prayers to themselves. Nobody is stopping them.
Nobody cares. There doesn’t need to be an official moment of
silence. Let people pray to their own versions of the divine or go ahead
and dine.

The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission is still
investigating my prayer recitation civil rights case. They’ll decide how
to proceed soon, but they already decided that there is reasonable grounds to
believe that the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code may have been violated with the
prayer recitation. I seek a judgment that has the effect of banning
prayer recitations at government organized events throughout the province of
Saskatchewan and that has significant persuasive value in other provinces.

The Centre for Inquiry Canada, Canadian Secular Alliance,
and Canadian Civil Liberties Association support the removal of prayer
recitations from government organized events. These organizations have
assisted me, but I’m self-represented.

You can interview me before or after the Executive Committee
meeting. I can be reached at amgsolo@mavericktechnologies.us. Also, you can interview Justin Trottier, spokesperson
for the Canadian Secular Alliance and founder of the Centre for Inquiry
Canada. Justin is an advisor to me on this case and is really
knowledgeable about secularism. He can be reached at info@secularalliance.ca.

By the way, as of August 12, 2013, I’m the CEO of the
Saskatoon GPS Association, the Saskatoon branch of the Green Party of
Saskatchewan. I was previously the acting CEO of the Saskatoon-Humboldt
Federal Green Party Association and the highest ranking electoral district
association agent in northern Saskatchewan for the Green Party of Canada.
The federal Green Party and provincial Green Party aren’t involved in my civil
rights cases.

I have more civil rights cases coming up and will keep you
informed. You ain’t seen nothing yet. The advancement of liberty is
more important than my popularity.